CAINAN. - 1. Heb. Qēnān, Gr. Καϊναν (-αμ), son of Enos (Gen. 5:9; I Par. 1:2), grandson of Seth, great-grandson of Adam, died at the age of 910 years (Gen. 5:14), and recalled by St. Luke (3:37) in the genealogy of Christ.
2. Καϊναν, another ancestor of Christ according to St. Luke (3:30), who calls him son of Arphaxad, grandson of Shem, great-grandson of Noah, and father of Sale. In the corresponding passage of Gen. 10:24; 11:12 (cf. I Par. 1:18), he is named in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew (and Vulgate), in which the descent passes directly from Arphaxad to Sale.
With regard to both texts, that of Genesis and that of St. Luke, commentators hold differing views. Some believe that Gen. 10:24 should be supplemented in the Hebrew text on the basis of the Greek (thus, for example, Kittel seems to imply in the Biblia Hebraica [3rd ed., Stuttgart 1920]); or, as regards St. Luke, that C. does not belong to the form written by the Evangelist, since it is lacking in cod. D (of Beza). More commonly, the view is favored that, for Genesis, the Hebrew is preferable, being also confirmed by the ancient and authoritative Samaritan Pentateuch, and that St. Luke merely reports the genealogy as derived from the Septuagint. Giovanni Rinaldi